


Se retrouver même sans s'attendre

by deliciousshame



Series: AoKuro Week 2017 [2]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AoKuro Week, AoKuro Week 2017, Future Fic, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 19:59:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10838361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciousshame/pseuds/deliciousshame
Summary: Tetsuya looks at the picture accompanying the article. Aomine-kun seems happy with his team. He hopes it's enough for him, because as pleased Tetsuya is as seeing Aomine-kun enjoying his career, it doesn't fill the void his absence creates.





	Se retrouver même sans s'attendre

**Author's Note:**

> For day two of AoKuro Week 2017, prompt: long-distance.
> 
> The title means, loosely translated, to find each other again even without waiting for each other. You can find a link and a translation of the song it's from [here](https://deliciousshame.dreamwidth.org/4160.html).

“Kuroko-sensei, you’re still here?”

“Kataoka-sensei. Yes, I am. I wasn’t done grading yet.”

“Why not do it at home? Oh, is your girlfriend disturbing you?”

Tetsuya doesn’t need to look at her to see her flirtatious looks. He wishes he could lie to her, if only to make more obvious how uninterested he is. “I live alone. I just prefer to work here.”

“Or maybe you were waiting for me to invite you for drinks after work?”

“I assure you that’s not the case.” 

She deflates a little at that and says her goodbyes quickly, but Tetsuya knows this won’t stop her for long.

She’s not a bad person. She’s just lonely. Tetsuya understands being lonely. 

He finishes grading a little while after and takes the train home back to his empty apartment. This is why he doesn’t like working there. It’s big enough for two people. It has to be, since this is where Aomine-kun stays when he comes back to Japan. He’s just not here most of the time. All that space Tetsuya could never afford by himself in the middle of Tokyo, just for him, makes him feel alone in the world.

It also makes him feel like an expensive mistress, the kind that you keep in luxury far away from the public eye. Tetsuya can’t tell Takaoka-san he’s not single. It wouldn’t be good for either of them to have their relationship exposed to the public. 

Aomine-kun and he send each other emails all the time, and they call often. It helps, but it cannot replace the presence of someone greeting you when you come back home after work. It’s not like someone sitting beside you when you watch a movie, someone sleeping by your side and smiling at you when you wake up, someone helping you clean up or going on a date with you on the weekend. It’s just not the same. 

Tetsuya goes to bed alone, wondering, not for the first time, if he wouldn’t be happier with someone else. If they both wouldn’t be happier with someone else. Aomine-kun could take his girlfriend out like his teammates. They could appear in magazines and show up at fundraising events. Tetsuya could spend his weekends with someone instead of always spending them by himself. He could go for a drink after work and tell his coworkers about his boyfriend instead of keeping mum. 

He falls asleep anyway. These worries are nothing unusual. 

____________________

Tetsuya reads all the articles that cover Aomine-kun. It improved his English endlessly. Some people might say he’s acting conceited, congratulating himself on his great catch, but that’s not it at all. Since his lover isn’t with him, he wants all the information he can get on his current well-being. Plus, Aomine-kun often forgets to tell him about some event he went to or some award he won. How stupid would he look if he knew less about his lover than the general American public? 

This means exposing himself to the occasional gossip rag. When he was younger, he paid them no mind. He remembers how it was back then. Aomine-kun had just left. Tetsuya himself was so secure in their relationship. He was confident they could last through their respective college education apart. 

Aomine-kun got drafted. Tetsuya got a job in Tokyo. Both of them agreed that Tetsuya moving to the States wasn’t a particularly good idea. It was hard, but they could handle it. 

It’s about at that point that articles about Aomine-kun started appearing. He was impressed and excited at first. Aomine-kun was making his mark on the world. From time to time, someone would wonder how a man like Aomine-kun had managed to go through his years in college and his professional career single, but since they had nothing but speculations to publish, it pretty much stopped there.

It’s another story now that he’s famous. Attractive women throw themselves at him at the slightest occasion, and Aomine-kun does appreciate attractive women in his vicinity. Each time a new face shows up in his circle, there is a journalist somewhere declaiming that this lady will be the one to free Aomine-kun from his status as a confirmed bachelor. Each new internet rumor hurts a little bit more. Tetsuya can’t seem to shrug them off like he used to. He sees those random women and imagines them sharing Aomine-kun’s bed. 

He knows Aomine-kun isn’t cheating on him. It’s not his type. But he might be thinking about it, like Tetsuya does, late at night. 

____________________

Tetsuya’s birthday is during the regular season, so Aomine-kun is never there. It’s also during the school year, so it’s not like Tetsuya himself could show up. This year, Aomine-kun has a match, so he spends it watching him through the glass, wishing they could be together.

It’s the same for most major holidays. He can’t come for New Year and doesn’t have Golden Week off when they make the playoffs. This year though, his team doesn’t make it, so Aomine-kun makes sure to come back for Golden Week. It’s rough for him to be eliminated so early. Tetsuya hopes it won’t sour this rare extended period of shared time off.

Tetsuya picks him up from the airport. He chides himself for the way his heart still races a bit when he sees him for the first time in a while, like he’s still that teenager with a crush he didn’t dare act on. Aomine-kun waves when he sees him and he waves right back, helpless against the impulse. They can’t do much more in public, but it’s still so much better to be with him in person than calls and messages. 

Aomine-kun had his baggage shipped earlier this week, so they take the train unencumbered. They still take advantage of the crowd filling the wagon to stand a little bit too close for property. The trip home is both too long and much too short. 

Tetsuya isn’t surprised at all that they find their way to the bedroom pretty much the moment they pass the door. He might even have been the one to instigate. After all this time apart, he needs to feel Aomine-kun under his hands.

____________________

It’s a bit of a struggle to adjust to sharing his space again. It’s like this each time Aomine-kun is back. But it’s a problem he loves having. Waking up with Aomine-kun sleeping by his side is worth having him put the dishes away at the wrong place or leave his clothes on the floor. 

He’s still dreaming of when this won’t happen anymore. Maybe after Aomine-kun retires and moves back to Japan definitively. 

(He never thinks about leaving Aomine-kun when he’s here. The problem never was with him as a person; Tetsuya has never loved anyone half as much as he loves him. He wouldn’t do all those sacrifices for someone that wasn’t worth it.)

They spend their first day in, enjoying the process of getting used to be around each other again. Aomine-kun makes a few calls, but Tetsuya sits right by his side through all of them, Aomine-kun’s free hand rarely far from his. Tetsuya can’t say he doesn’t enjoy it, but he feels like something is… off. Aomine-kun’s mind seems to wander at the strangest moment. At first, Tetsuya doesn’t give it much thought, because his team did fail to make the playoffs and that must still be bothering him. Especially since Kagami-kun’s team made it. It’s, in fact, one of the favorites to win. That must be driving him crazy.

They go out on the second day, just walking around, go see a movie, stop at restaurants they both enjoy. Aomine-kun might be famous, but he plays in another country a sport much less popular here than there. He can walk around the town without catching too much attention. Anyway, they just look like two guys hanging out. Nothing to write home about. 

It’s still fun. Tetsuya still enjoys being around Aomine-kun. But he once again catches Aomine-kun staring at the cover of a magazine a little bit too intently. The idol gracing the cover is his type, and if the white wedding gown she is wearing is a bit less revealing than he would usually prefer, it doesn’t seem to bother him. They keep on walking, Aomine-kun staring a few more times at couples walking down the streets. They’re allowed to be a bit more demonstrative than they are, though, again, this is Japan, not America. Is Aomine-kun used to lovers kissing in the streets, unapologetic in their display of affection, only focused on themselves? Even if he were a woman on a trip to visit her boyfriend, Tetsuya doesn’t think he would go this far. 

But maybe being able to would be nice. 

It goes on like this. They struggle through the crowds of Golden Week everywhere. No matter where they go, Aomine-kun’s attention keeps wavering away from him. By Friday, where Aomine-kun seems to find the flags of Children’s Day and the families running around more interesting than Tetsuya, he has decided that if Aomine-kun doesn’t breach the subject himself tomorrow, he will. He won’t carry this all week at work. He can already see his colleagues noticing him sighing by himself. 

But after the day’s outing, Aomine-kun asks him if he will go hiking on Mount Mitake with him, and Tetsuya says yes. He personally thinks it’s a bit of a wasted opportunity considering the annual festival at the shrine is in two days, but he will be back to work then and can’t really afford to stay out late. 

Hikes are time for quiet, more private moments, even in the rush of Golden Week. If Aomine-kun has something to say, he might do it then. If not, Tetsuya will. 

___________________

They’re lucky. The weather is beautiful. Of course, all the trains and bus are full, but Tetsuya doesn’t care. It’s just a part of life in Tokyo. He can tell all the crowding had started to wear Aomine-kun thin, but that’s just another thing he’ll get used to as time passes. That, or he’ll finally make good on his threat of buying a car. Tetsuya always tries to stop him because who is going to be stuck with a useless car most of the year? Him. Aomine-kun replies that he could just have it stored when he’s not here. Tetsuya says that’s just wasting money. Aomine-kun says he’s got more than enough of the stuff. This annoys Tetsuya’s more frugal soul. 

Tetsuya sighs. That’s not a fight they need to have again. Let’s just enjoy the sun and the warming air. 

Like he expected, they walk up the trail in a silence only broken by the occasional bird or the distant voice of another hiker. Aomine-kun is even conscious of not going too fast with those long legs of his, something he sometimes forgets to do. Tetsuya and his teacher stamina cannot match him. 

Once again, against his conscious will, Tetsuya feels his anxiety flows away. There’s nothing here to distract them from each other’s presence. The mountain is beautiful. The air is pleasant. The ambient sounds are soothing. Tetsuya wishes it would always be like this between them. Comfortable and uncomplicated. 

Tetsuya knows they’re going to rejoin the paved path, and most of the other visitors that took the cable car up to the shrine, soon. From the way Aomine-kun slowed down, he’s not the only one regretting the fact that they’re back to more public spaces. But since he’s here, he wants to visit the shrine, see the statues and give an offering with Aomine-kun. 

Aomine-kun reaches for him and grabs his upper arm. “Tetsu.”

Tetsuya stops. “Yes?”

Aomine-kun rubs the back of his neck. He’s hesitating. 

So this is it. Whatever has been bothering Aomine-kun, this is when he’ll know what it is. “I… shit. I hoped the scenery would make it easier, but it didn’t help. Sorry, I’m a nervous wreck.”

This is not good. “Take your time. What is it?” Let’s not panic just now.

“Look, I know it hasn’t been easy for you. If it helps, it hasn’t been for me either.” 

Maybe this is it. Aomine-kun is trying to let him down easy. They’ll both agree that they gave it their best try, but they couldn’t make it work. They’re almost back to public spaces, so neither of them will want to lose face in public. By the time they’re back home, they’ll be a bit more used to their new reality.

“The thing is, it taught me a few things. I know what I want now.”

Is he… Of course not. He can’t be. 

Oh god, he is. “Please marry me? It won’t be worth much here, but it’s the thought that counts?”

That last part was so unnecessary, Aomine-kun, you idiot. “I…” never thought about it? though you were breaking up with me? might be hallucinating? “Are you serious?”

“Of course not. I just dragged my three less stupid teammates to jewelry stores because I felt like dealing with clerks trying to convince me my significant other needed to wear the total wealth of a small African country on their finger or they wouldn’t accept my proposal, all that accompanied with the jeering of said teammates. Yeah, that’s my idea of a grand time. In fact, I try to do that at least once a week, you know, there’s never too much of a good thing. Oh god, I’m babbling, someone stop me, please say something already before I throw myself down this mountain.” 

…“Why?”

Aomine-kun’s arms fly around in all directions. “Why did you have to ask me that? Isn’t it because I love you? No, I get it. I wanted a commitment. Something tangible for both of us when we’re sitting along in our stupid empty apartments and wondering if this stupid job is worth it if I always feel alone, even when I win.” 

It’s nice to know he’s not the only one struggling. Not that he doubted it, but still. This is the answer Aomine-kun came up with?

It’s a much better one than anything Tetsuya ever thought about. “Yes.”

“Yes? Yes what? Wait, are you telling me yes? Are we getting married? Shit, we’re getting married. We’re getting married. Damn it, now we have to plan the thing. Do you think your parents will agree to come to America? We can’t get married here, so it’s not like they have a choice. Forget that, do you think they’ll agree to the wedding? I don’t think they even like me-“

“Calm down. My parents like you just fine. I’m sure they’ll manage a few days abroad. Now, maybe you could give me that ring?” Tetsuya wants that on his finger now, please. 

Aomine-kun blushes, maybe. “Oh, sure. I should have started with that, right.”

The tiny incrusted diamonds pick up the sun’s light. For such tiny things, they’re blinding. 

“Wow. It suits you.”

Maybe Tetsuya blushes a little under Aomine-kun’s newly heated gaze, but they’re not exactly at home right now. “Thank you.”

They finally reach the shrine. Tetsuya leaves a decent offering and prays to get stronger. He’ll need it, but it will definitely be worth it in the end.


End file.
